New Zealand's bishops de facto accept a new “End-of-Life Choice Act” euthanasia law that comes into effect November 7.
Five pages of verbose guidelines for priests call it a “sign of good intent” when persons planning to kill themselves request spiritual accompaniment. Speaking about "assisted dying," the bishops expect that the wanna-be suicides' request will be granted.
They call it "proper" to give the sacraments to suicides who requests them, and claim that priests ("ministers") are entitled to presume that a suicide who conscientiously transgresses the fifth commandment ("thou shalt not kill") and asks for the sacraments "does so in good faith."
The bishops call on priests "to affirm God’s mercy" by presiding at the funeral of cold-blooded suicides. For those priests who see through the episcopal bag of tricks, the guidelines propose the Anglican solution: a priest not willing to grin and bear it, may opt out but must find another priest who will commit the crime.
According to …More